American Teaching Hospitals: Where Pelvic Exams Under Anesthesia Happen (October 18, 2017)Before undergoing a liver biopsy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, I asked my surgeon's nurse whether I was to be catheterized for the procedure. In response to this perfectly legitimate question the knave sardonically replied: "I'm really not supposed to say this, but what difference does it make? You're going to be under general anesthesia."

Sources News Releases (September 11, 2017)News releases from organizations and companies on a wide range of topics. Includes an extensive topic index, an archive of releases going back to the 1970s, and links to experts and organizations knowledgeable about the issues covered in the releases. Available via RSS feed as well as on the Sources.com website.

Anti-Vax Propaganda Helps Measles -- Once Eradicated -- Spread Across the Twin Cities (May 8, 2017)The anti-vaxxer misinformation campaign has led to yet another outbreak of a preventable disease. Minnesota's Department of Health has announced that 44 people in the state have been diagnosed with measles, a disease once eradicated in the United States. Forty-two of the cases are in children, most of them Somali-Americans who were never vaccinated. According to numerous sources, the outbreak is the result of a sustained anti-vaccination campaign.

Humans and Subhumans: Weill Cornell and the Death of the American Soul (February 27, 2017)All patients that walk through the door of Weill Cornell are put into two categories: the humans, who are deemed by Cornell to have "good insurance," and the subhumans, who are deemed by Cornell to have "bad insurance." If you fall into the category of the former, they will generally make a grudging effort to provide you with good care. If you fall into the category of the later, they will literally bend over backwards to see to it that you are provided with truly awful and atrocious care.

The Wages of Neoliberalism (June 7, 2016)Economist Michael Hudson says neoliberal policy will pressure U.S. citizens to emigrate, just as it caused millions to leave Russia, the Baltic States, and now Greece in search of a better life. A research team from Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health in New York estimates 875,000 deaths in the United States in year 2000 could be attributed to social factors related to poverty and income inequality.

Recession led to 260k extra cancer deaths, experts claim (May 27, 2016)Unemployment and austerity were associated with more than 260,000 extra deaths of cancer patients in countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD), a study has shown. Those countries with universal health coverage , such as the UK, and a record of increased public health spending had fewer casualties.

The Precautionary Principle: the basis of a post-GMO ethic (April 18, 2016)GMOs have been in our diets for about 20 years. Proof that they are safe? No way - it took much, much longer to discover the dangers of cigarettes and transfats, dangers that are far more visible than those of GMOs. On the scale of nature and ecology, 20 years is a pitifully short time. To sustain our human future, we have to think long term.

Pharma Greed Run Amuk (February 11, 2016)Congress, especially its GOP members, created the Martin monster. Martin Shkreli is only one of the monsters the GOP Congress has created. Probably our best hope is that one or many, like Shkreli, will overreach in an outrageous greed that our government has condoned for decades. Like errant spoiled children, pharmaceuticals (Pharma) have run roughshod over an obliging Congress and a consuming public since politicians -- in effect -- gave them license to steal.

Poisoning the Well (December 16, 2015)Lori Cervera had always been an active person. She liked camping, playing outdoors with her kids, and practically lived in her running shoes. She didnt have much patience for illness. So when she developed a dull ache on her right side in May 2014, Cervera took a few Tylenol and did her best to ignore it. But after a few days in which the pain grew sharper and more intense, she went to the hospital, where a CT scan revealed a mass. To her complete surprise, Cervera, a mother of four and grandmother of two who was 46 at the time, was diagnosed with stage 2 kidney cancer. That July she underwent surgery to remove both the tumor and almost half her right kidney.

TPP: Big Pharma's Big Deal (October 7, 2015)We still don't know all the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal tentatively agreed to on Oct. 5 by negotiators from 12 Pacific Rim countries, but already critics are slamming it for many reasons, including its generous concessions to the pharmaceutical industry.

The Devil Is In the Details: How Patients' Mental Health Data Is At Risk (August 21, 2015)It seems like "Patient doctor confidentiality" doesnt apply to other doctors. Overly diligent doctors are free to snoop around in the psychiatric medical records of their patients. As if that weren't bad enough, non-psychiatric doctors can highlight this psychiatric history on their patient's medical records. For Julia, doctors will only ever know her as the "woman with bipolar disorder". Not the "mother with a masters degree".

Canada's top medical journal says Harper is undermining public health care (August 19, 2015)The current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal features an editorial written by Deputy Editor Dr. Matthew Stanbrook slamming the Harper Conservatives for weakening public health care in Canada. "For much of the last decade, Canadian federal health policy has been conspicuous by its absence," Stanbrook says, adding "in recent years, the federal government has neglected [its health care] responsibilities, even when courts have ordered them to do otherwise." The Conservatives are undermining and under-funding Canada's public healthcare system, spurning collaboration with the provinces and essentially removing the federal government from the health care business, Stanbrook suggests.

Why the federal government must lead in health care (August 17, 2015)For much of the last decade, Canadian federal health policy has been conspicuous by its absence. During that time, the federal government has walked away from collaborating with the provinces through the Council of the Federation and declined to renew the First Ministers Accord on Health Care; dithered on public health measures of glaringly obvious benefit, such as tobacco control and asbestos elimination; ignored and disbanded expert advisory panels on health issues; weakened the authority of the public health agency; muzzled scientists; eliminated the long form census, the best source of information on regional disparities relevant to health; and eroded research support, while increasingly tying what remains to business interests rather than health benefits.

Medical Privacy Under Threat in the Age of Big Data (August 6, 2015)Medical privacy is a high-stakes game, in both human and financial terms, given the growing multibillion-dollar legal market for anonymized medical data. The threats to individuals seeking to protect their medical data can come externally, from data breaches; internally, from "rogue employees" and others with access; or through loopholes in regulations.

Health Care and Immigration Policies that Kill (March 17, 2015)Cuts to Canada's Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), severely curtail access to health-care services for refugee claimants and refugees. Many beneficiaries and practitioners were already critical of the original IFHP because it provided inconsistent access to health care and many services were not covered. The situation only worsened after the cuts.

Psychiatry's Manufacture of Consent (May 14, 2014)Starting in the 1990s  despite research findings that levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin were unrelated to depression  Americans began to be exposed to highly effective television commercials for antidepressants that portrayed depression as caused by a chemical imbalance of low levels of serotonin and which could be treated with chemically balancing antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

Black Sites across America (February 4, 2014)There are 2.3 million people in US prisons in conditions that are often inhumane and at worst life threatening. The most striking aspect of this scene is the lack of decent medical care for prisoners, whether in solitary confinement or in the general prison population.

Cancer is Capitalist Violence (November 15, 2013)Its been two decades since the publication of Martha Balshams landmark study, Cancer in the Community: Class and Medical Authority (1993). Balshem, a hospital-based anthropologist, documented how a Philadelphia lay community rejected medical advice to stop smoking, eat fruits and vegetables and schedule regular screening tests. The working class community of Tannerstown (a pseudonym) instead blamed air pollution from highway traffic and nearby chemical plants, as well as fate, for their cancers.

Job makes us sick (November 1, 2013)Corporations blame individual workers for their own state of health, which in reality is adversely impacted by unsafe work conditions individual workers have little or no control over. When management puts austerity and cost-cutting ahead of well-being, individual human beings pay the price.

The Drug Companies' Expansion Into Emerging Markets (October 18, 2013)Faced with declining prescription drug sales in the U.S., and having lost patent protection for many profitable drugs, the drug industry is relying increasingly in new markets such as China and other fast developing countries, such as those in Africa. That expansion, however, is oftentimes tainted by unsavory commercial practices.

Researchers find link between aircraft noise and heart disease (2013)Exposure to high levels of aircraft noise is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, two studies find. Researchers found increased risks of stroke, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease for both hospital admissions and mortality, especially among the 2% of the study population exposed to the highest levels of daytime and night time aircraft noise.

Pfizer's Elixir of Youth? (December 7, 2012)It was a great moment in Pharma funded physician education. At a symposium at the American Psychiatric Associations 2010 meeting called Mood, Memory and Myths: What Really Happens at Menopause, two Wyeth/Pfizer funded speakers tried to resurrect the benefits of cancer-linked hormone therapy. But the mostly-female audience was having none of it: what can we do about our tamoxifen brain from the cancer we already have, they wanted to know.

The Drug Store in American Meat (November 28, 2012)Food consumers seldom hear about the drugs oestradiol-17, zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melengestrol acetate and the names are certainly not on meat labels. But those synthetic growth hormones are central to U.S. meat production, especially beef, and the reason Europe has banned a lot of U.S. meat since 1989.

Some pumpkin recipes (November 4, 2012)What is really unfortunate about the tradition of pumpkin carving is the waste of food as the vast majority of these pumpkins are destined for destruction. Pumpkin is a highly nutritious vegetable. The seeds and the flesh are packed with vitamins and nutrients. There are wonderful pumpkin recipes around and pumpkin actually is very tasty.

Medicare Myths and Realities (May 1, 2012)Since medicare is an extremely popular social program, the media and right-wing politicians have learned that it is unwise to attack it directly. Instead, they propagate myths designed to undermine public support for, and confidence in, the health care system, with the goal of gradually undermining and dismantling it.

Indonesia's Smoking Epidemic (March 30, 2012)Cigarettes are a rite of passage for boys in Indonesia, where 70% of the adult male population smokes. Activists and health care professionals are advocating for age restrictions on tobacco products and a ban on tobacco advertisements.

One latrine at a time (February 24, 2012)Diarrhoea kills more children than HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined  and its main cause is food and water contaminated with human waste. Liberia's president is trying to change all that. Building latrines must be a key priority to promote health and sanitation.

ER certainties: death and co-pays (September 1, 2011)Our society has made choices that dehumanize all of us. Dehumanization is felt inside and outside the shop floor. The HMO's bottom line is not about how well the patient's illness is treated, but how to minimize costs. They remind us employees daily that we're a business. The corporate ethos is the survival of the business above all, over anyone else's survival.

What Bhopal Started (June 15, 2010)Bhopal marked the horrific beginning of a new era. One that signalled the collapse of restraint on corporate power. The ongoing BP spill in the Mexican Gulf -- with estimates ranging from 30,000 to 80,000 barrels per day -- tops off a quarter of a century where corporations could (and have) done anything in the pursuit of profit, at any human cost.

Sources Calendar (October 29, 2009)Listings of events of interest to journalists, editors, researchers, publishers and others working in the media and in publishing, covering Canadian and international events, press conferences, meetings, festivals and holidays, as well as award deadlines.

Meet the Real Death Panels (September 18, 2009)Harvard-based researchers found that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts, up from a 25 percent excess death rate found in 1993.